Our annual American Music Festival concludes Friday with music chosen by John Zorn, and with two American song-cycles: a rarity from the 1950s — a young Barbara Cook singing Seymour Barab’s setting of Dorothy Parker texts, “Songs of Perfect Propriety,” and Chris Thile’s new bluegrass song-cycle “The Blind Leaving the Blind.” But you can continue […]
The American Music Festival has been a staple on WNYC since 1940. It was launched as a response to the gathering forces of Fascism in Europe, to showcase the extraordinary richness of music and culture that is American, and not dependent on European imports. This year our week long celebration of American music is […]
WNYC’s annual American Music Festival begins this Sunday. We started the Festival way back around 1940 to celebrate the vitality and variety of American music, displaying our pride partly to refute the Nazi’s condemnation of America’s music as “degenerate.” Musicians ranging from Benny Goodman to Aaron Copland to Miles Davis to Woody Guthrie have participated […]
AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski
Yesterday we heard that the home of the Berlin Philharmonic sustained serious damage from a fire that broke out on its roof, shortly before an open rehearsal. A very scary and disturbing event, for any building, but here at WNYC it was much more personal. Last November, a few months before I joined […]
Scorsese and Jagger
John Rockwell has his finger on the still-beating pulse of a theme in current cinema: the elderly singing rock ‘n roll. Whether as part of an inspirational community outreach (”Young at Heart”), or a Rolling Stones tour (Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light”), the age of the participants only serves to highlight the vitality […]
Photo by Anne Garland/luminousplayhouse.com
During the last few weeks you’ve been generous with your thoughts and responses to the Evening Music Blog, letting me know what you’re doing and experiencing as you listen to WNYC. Your comments create a composite portrait of a very interesting and interested community of listeners. This weekend WNYC’s spring membership drive […]
Charles Wuorinen
New York’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recently commissioned music from composer Charles Wuorinen. Wuorinen delivered a four-movement composition, each movement of which features prominently one of the ensemble’s extraordinary players. The first movement was written for the ensemble’s bass player, one of the founding members of the Orchestra and a world-renowned musician. Due to death […]